One of the aims of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project
is to give the underprivileged new opportunities and experiences they otherwise
wouldn’t have. Interestingly enough, some school children are using their
laptops to browse pornographic Internet sites.

According to a Reuters
report, a reporter at the official News
Agency of Nigeria discovered pornographic images on the donated laptops
from a U.S. aid organization. It is unclear whether or not school children were
actually caught in the act of browsing such websites.

"Efforts to promote learning with laptops in a primary
school in Abuja have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with
explicit sexual materials," reported the News Agency of Nigeria.

Perhaps in response to the discovery of the OLPC’s side
features, a representative for the laptop project said that the computers will
now be fitted with filtering software.

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I agree with Exodus220 - that's a lot of hate for one posting - and a lot of sweeping, broad generalizations. The extremests that engage in the views that you express are just a very small fraction of the nations involved. Although the US's recent complete and total lack of anything close to competence in foreign policy over the past 5-10 years is really helping to grow the hatred that you describe.

Not to defend his "racism", but the groups he is describing don't give a sh*t about foreign policy. They are out to murder in the name of their god. We could continue to donate billions upon billions to developing nations, appoint a Kofi-backed rubber stamp puppet to the U.N., remove sanctions from every nation, and they would still want to kill us. Why? Because we aren't muslim.

And don't be fooled into thinking it's only this ultra extreme fringe group. If reasonable people like yourself are able to empathize with them to the point of confusing the very nature of their hatred, imagine how easy it is for people living under their rule to strap bombs to their children. Our foreign policy is all but irrelevant in the face of what they consider to be "diplomacy".

There is a cultural hatred that exists, and I agree with you that it does not exist due to, nor can it be eliminated by, US foreign policy in the region. But the ability of that radical element to influence otherwise reasonable citizens to join their cause, is certainly something that US foreign policy can, and has had, an effect on.

The Bush Adminstration has made two serious mistakes, in my opinion, in this region:

1. Practically no diplomatic engagement in the region (except for its unconditional support for Israel, regardless of their actions), and has taken a hard line to explicitly avoid discussion with regional powers who have different views than us (e.g., Syria and Iran).

2. Pro-active military action in the region, towards the goal of protecting American interests, seemingly without any longer-term plan that takes into account the needs of the Iraqi or American citizens, i.e., the primary stakeholders in this situation.

Because of these mistakes, US foreign policy has played into the hands of the radicals, by helping to create millions of unemployed in Iraq and elsewhere without much hope of a visible future. In these hearts and minds are fertile opportunities for recruitment by the radical elements.

Maybe there's millions unemployed in Iraq because Iraqi's are blowing the fucking country up. Nah that couldn't be it.

And what do you mean no diplomacy? We give them every chance at peace. Hell we're about to give Iran hundreds of millions of dollars in aid despite knowing that they fund and arm terrorist groups. If anything we need to have less diplomacy with them and more kicking their ass. I'm tired of the US paying out billions of dollars every year to foreign countries so that their citizens can continue to hate us and try to kill our troops. And then we have our own citizens saying that we doing nothing good in the world.

quote: Maybe there's millions unemployed in Iraq because Iraqi's are blowing the fucking country up. Nah that couldn't be it.

Uh, no, there are millions unemployed because we removed/destroyed their economy, their government, their infrastructure, etc. We did that - you and I - with our tax dollars. Cope with it.

quote: And what do you mean no diplomacy?

The Bush Administration has never had any serious peace talks with regional leaders in the Mideast - never in the entire 7 years he's been in office.

Bringing the might of the US military down onto a country, smashing everything to small bits, and then telling them to pursue peace and democracy is a stupid plan, it is not diplomacy, and it is not effective. Diplomacy and peace happens in meeting rooms between leaders, not by military action.

I'm not saying we're doing nothing good in the world - don't paint me with that anti-American whitewash - I'm just saying that American diplomacy in the Mideast is ineffective at best, and counterproductive at worst.

So, you object to giving something back to Iraq after destroying its infrastructure so that it could not resist its oil being taken? Well, I guess that's optimistic at best. As you said, most of the money is going to arm terrorist groups. After all, for as long as there's little to no stability in the region, any government in place won't be able to focus on taking control over its own resources.